Round 28: Auction Slows, But Money Still Flows

Whether it is a pre-Thanksgiving lull or just the natural slowing of an auction as the numbers climb, the FCC's AWS-3 auction bids "only" increased by a hair under $600 million on 448 bids Monday (Nov. 24) in round 28 of what has been a heavyweight slugfest for spectrum that wireless companies say they desperately need—round 27 saw more than a billion dollars in new bids.

The latest round pushed the total bids so far to $34,681,769,700 for 1,614 available spectrum licenses comprising 65 MHz of spectrum. The auction launched Nov. 13, and will continue until there are no more bids or waivers exercised in a round.

The majority of that 65 MHz is expected to go to AT&T and Verizon, the largest bidders in the auction. The highest bid so far is $2,012,964,000 for one of five New York City area licenses.